Zendikar Rising Set Review: White

 Well. 

Haven't done one of these in a hot minute. Been somewhat out of the Magic scene since COVID-19 came along and ruined everyone's lives (and still continues to do so, sadly). But I'm bored, and This Eldrazi-free incarnation of Zendikar seems like a pretty cool set, so let's take a look at it.

White

Kicking things off with a Mythic Angel, and boy it's a weird one. A 2/6 with Flying and Double Strike for 5 isn't particular exciting, though it might see play in some Boros decks that run a lot of Swords of X and Y. But then you have the weird symmetrical life gain effect, and you're like "Huh?"

 

But that last ability makes it all make sense. Sort of. In EDH it SHOULD be pretty easy for a deck that wants this type of card to get to 55 or higher life. I've gone WAY higher with Oloro, Karlov and probably others. 

That all said, I am NOT a fan of alt-win-condition cards like this, Felidar Sovereign, and other cards that just say "Do X: Win Game." It'll certain get played, especially in Orzhov lifegain decks, but I will be avoiding it myself.

I'm also usually not a big fan of Stax/Hate Bear stuff, but some are less offensive than others. This one, I actually quite like. Limiting players to on spell a turn is an effect I don't feel miserable about playing even in a casual setting. And the second effect is also fine at most tables. It slows people down but doesn't lock them out of playing, so I have no issue playing with or against these cards. 

I'm all for them printing for Stax-adjacent effects like this, though usually I prefer them to NOT be on creatures, as the types of decks that I would run this in, tend to also run a bit heavy on board wipes. Still, I see this as a highly playable card at casual and competitive tables alike. 

I'm mainly covering this card just to talk about the Party mechanic. 

Not a fan.

I do not have a background in D&D so maybe that is why the mechanic seems so boring and worthless to me. But even eschewing the lack of nostalgia and just evaluating it purely on its deck-building potential and game impact... I just don't see it doing much for the format. 

I'm sure a lot of people will like it, and will build decks around it... but that doesn't mean it's actually good. 

Landfall is always one of the more exciting mechanics to return, but I have to admit, it feels like they toned it down JUST A BIT in this iteration. At least in white, there is nothing quite as impactful or powerful as Emeria Angel or Admonition Angel. 

This cure little mouse is probably the second-most playable of White's Landfall crop this year, and even it is iffy. It'll almost certainly get shoe-horned in to W/x landfall decks simply due to it's cuteness, but I expect it's performance to be so-so. 

And now we have a new thing - cards with spells on one side, and lands on the back side. We've seen Double-faced cards before of course, but these are new in that you choose which side to play when you play it, and that's it! There's not flip or transform mechanic. You either get a land or you cast a spell, and that's all she wrote. 

For record the back of this one is just a generic W producing land that ETB's tapped unless you pay 3 life. Woof. Still fine, if the spell on the front is something you'd want to cast some of the time and only use the land side when you really need to. But at 7 mana, the spell side feels quite underpowered. Even in dedicated token decks, there are much better ways to make lots of Angels.

This is easily White's best Landfall card of the set, and the only one that almost certainly slots into most W/x landfall decks. It actually probably goes into many W/x decks that are instead focused on +1/+1 counters.  This feels like a HUGE upgrade to Retreat to Emeria for only 1 mana more. The only scenario I see in which you don't immediately replace the Retreat with this is if your deck actually needs the Ally tokens specifically. 

A really cool card, but one of those where your group has to be okay with these kinds of "outside the game" effects. But it does seem like a baller move to put one of these in your deck and just have a stack of them sitting next to it. 

But even in your group is totally down with these sorts of cards, this still isn't THAT powerful. And endless supply of otherwise-vanilla 4/3 flyers is certainly fine, but not overly powerful. There are probably better things in your deck that you'd rather be doing most of the time than casting the 3rd or 4th one of these in a row.

This cleric should be pretty good in +1/+1 counter decks. Not much else to say about it.

Though if you want a more techy thing to do with it, I suppose you could use in Boros decks along side Mentor creatures. Use it to buff the Mentor creature itself so that the Mentor in turn can always stay big enough to buff other creatures. Dunno if that's good, but it's a cute trick, at least.

Also, as usual, good with Persist creatures.

Getting the first equip for free is nice, but the buffs it provides are just okay-ish. We're spoiled for choice on really good Equipment so I have a hard time envisioning where this has a spot over the more powerful options. I guess budget would be the sole consideration that makes this playable. 

Eh, and I guess some Sram decks can probably just find one more slot for this without having to cut something better.

Another modal DFC. The effect is powerful, but 8 mana is quite steep. I don't think the option to play this as a land when needed is quite enough to make the front side attractive. 

I can see this getting some play, I just personally don't find it appealing on any level. I'd just rather run a cheaper version of this effect and make sure my mana base is solid enough without needing a sometimes-land DFC.

Meh. White has such EXCEPTIONAL removal and the options are plentiful indeed. 

Again, the Party mechanic just does nothing for me. I just can't get excited about cards that only work if I have exactly these four types of creature. 

I also like my "make your team Indestructible" effects to be instant speed, so I can negate board wipes. Such effects that only work on your own turn and are telegraphed to your opponents are pretty worthless, IMO.

Technically this is a 5 color card, but it shows up in the White section on the official spoiler page, so here it is. 

Obviously if your going Party tribal you have to be looking at this Tazri as at least a potential commander, and she may even be the clear best choice. I do appreciate that they also threw a bone to the Ally decks of yore as well. 

I'm just wondering if there's enough overlap between Allies and the Party types to make a cohesive deck built around both. But I'm not curious enough to actually look, because it still seems like a boring deck to me.

Almost overlooked this little guy. I always like a cheap double striker, as they were Equipment quite well, and even a 1/1 hits pretty hard when carrying a Sword of Fire and Ice. If your deck has a decent amount of both Warriors and Equipment, you'll clearly be wanting to slot this in somewhere. Without a handful of other warriors to potentially buff, this is basically just a Fencing Ace reprint. Which is fine, but not really needed.